A Second Heartbeat
by SilhouetteVisions
Summary: Kosma, a smart-mouthed teenager, is just excited school is out. What happens when her world is destroyed, she meets a trio of key-wielding teens and accidentally absorbs someone's heart into her body? Nothing like the summer she asked for. OCxOCxRi SoxKa
1. Descent of Hell

**AuNo: Welcome to my Kingdom Hearts fanfiction! First of all, this isn't my first. I've written many before, but all on different accounts. No, you may not have those accounts. Anyway, I'm extremely excited for this. It may start off slow, but let's face it, they all do. If they don't, they're usually crap. This fanfiction takes place about a month after the ending of Kingdom Hearts II. Enjoy, and please review! They're what keep me writing. :D**

Chapter One

Descent of Hell

_Under the burning sun  
I take a look around.  
Imagine if this all came down.  
I'm waiting for the day to come._

30 Seconds to Mars, "Oblivion"

* * *

"These streamer things really piss me the fuck off," Kosma complained, wresting the ten-foot green paper serpent. It spun and lashed at her in protest. "Why do they have to be spirals? Can't we be just as festive with straight crepe paper?"

Her best friend, Siobhan laughed as she pushed a lock of dark blond hair behind her left ear. "When they start selling straight strips of crepe paper at Card and Party I'll be sure to let you know. And be careful of what you say; my mom could walk in any minute."

"Like your mom's never heard you swear," Kosma mumbled incredulously, finally managing to tape the green monster to Siobhan's doorway. Even then, it looked lopsided and weak, to fall down at any moment. "It's mocking me," she whispered angrily to herself, but eventually turned away to look at Siobhan, who was standing on a small letter, pinning balloons higher up on her wall.

"Well, not all of us swear like sailors," Siobhan stated flatly, walking down the ladder. Her tone should have told Kosma that she was done, that the conversation had ended, but already pumped up for a party, Kosma decided to take this as far as she could.

"No. Just us two," Kosma smirked, narrowing her brown eyes, which looked black in the dim lights of Siobhan's living room. Her tone caused Siobhan to turn around and almost slip on the last step, but she managed to regain her balance just in time. While her face was furious from Kosma's arguing initially, it quickly softened.

"You're right," she mumbled.

"What's that?" Kosma asked, putting her right hand behind its corresponding ear, "Did you just say I'm right?"

"Don't get used to it," Siobhan warned her, and pulled up her slipping pink skirt. "You think it looks okay?" she asked, pointing up to the mass of green and gold balloons taped to the wall. They may as well have been eyes staring down at the two of them, and soon enough, the rest of the partygoers, but Kosma decided that she owed Siobhan a little less sarcasm.

"Looks great," she said, nodding her head, "except the color combination is hideous."

Siobhan sighed. "I know. And it's-"

"I know, I know," Kosma waved her off, "our school's colors. It's also the Packers' colors, irony abounds." Living in Illinois meant that everybody was a Bears fan for football (everybody, that is, except for Kosma's parents), and their high schools colors being the same as the rival's was some amusing irony that the students often poked fun at. "Anyone would celebrate getting out of that hellhole, even if just for one summer."

"That's what I'm trying to say," Siobhan laughed, "it's a celebration that our junior year is finally over. Not like senior year will be any better, but hey, I could use a celebration. What time is it?" she asked.

Kosma scoffed. As if she actually carried a watch on her. No, that would mean being responsible. She glanced at Siobhan's old VHS player, the one that she refused to get rid of. "How will we watch Child's Play movies without it?" she would say sarcastically. In a way, Kosma agreed; both of them seemed to have a hard time letting go of their past. "Six," Kosma answered dreamily, her mind now on the old movies they used to watch. "What time are they supposed to get here?"

Before Siobhan could answer, the doorbell rang. Siobhan smirked and headed over to the door. Through the window, they could see several people (obviously carpoolers) waiting at the door. All of them were dressed to kill, as usual. "Now," she answered, and opened the door.

* * *

Epik High was blasting through the speakers, music choice courtesy of Kosma. Everyone was talking, some people were even dancing in the little area that used to be occupied with couches and a glass table. The original occupants had been pushed somewhere into Siobhan's garage. Kosma's best friend always liked giving her uncle a hard time, which sometimes meant shoving furniture in where his car was supposed to go.

"I heard there's supposed to be a big storm tonight," Kosma caught hints of chatter when she walked by to throw away some of the used, empty cups. Part of being the hostess's best friend meant being on the clean up committee, but she was okay with that. "A big one. Around midnight. Tornado warning and all that."

"Where'd you hear that?" Kosma asked, joining in immediately on the conversation. It was their friend Yuki speaking with Seth. Both of them were usually very comical people, hilarious in absolutely everything they did, but even with the amazing atmosphere of the party, the blinking lights and the loud music, Yuki's voice was grave.

"Weather this morning," Yuki responded, "but my dad says that they've been predicting this for a week."

Kosma, back then, disregarded this as nothing. She rolled her chocolate eyes and sighed dreamily. "If only this storm could have happened one fucking week ago. Then maybe we would have gotten some time off of school."

Yuki laughed meekly, but Seth shook his head. "No, it's probably best that it's happening now, because we'd have to go to school for an extra day."

"Bah," Kosma said, waving it off with fingers with chipped green nail polish. "Maybe there won't even be a storm at all. After all, summer's starting. Storm season is practically over." Yuki and Seth gave her looks of disbelief. "Honestly, how many times have those crackhead weathermen gotten the weather wrong? They said it wouldn't rain on my birthday last year and we had a hailstorm. Oh, it didn't rain, all right."

Seth laughed now. "Maybe you're right."

"I have to throw these away," Kosma said, leaving Yuki and Seth to their conversation. Although she wanted to pass it off as nothing, Kosma stopped Siobhan on her way into the garage to recycle the plastic cups.

"Siobhan," she said, "did you hear about the storm?"

Siobhan nodded and followed her into the garage. "Yeah, it's pretty much the only conversation that's going around right now. They say that it's going to be huge; and you want to know the weird thing? They say that it's going to happen _everywhere_."

"What?" Kosma asked, disposing of the cups, "All of the U.S.? Like another Hurricane Katrina?" She shook her head. "I'll never get why they name hurricanes with such pussy names. Who's going to be afraid of Katrina or Ivan? They should call them Hurricane Dicksmasher or Hurricane Cuntpuncher, maybe then I'll be a little afraid."

Kosma had gone ranting, so Siobhan shook her head quickly. "No, not just the United States. I mean it, Kosma. _Everywhere_. As in, the whole world."

The last cup, Kosma missed, and it landed with an irritating _clank_ on the garage's floor. Kosma scrambled to pick it up and throw it back into the recycling bin, but her epiglottis had already failed in blocking the passage of her saliva into her trachea. In other words, she was choking on her own spit. "The whole world? That's bullshit."

"Don't use your fifteenth birthday excuse again, Kosma," Siobhan said, but her tone wasn't snappish. On the contrary, it was quite calming. Her forest green eyes were digging holes into Kosma, however, so she stiffened and tried to take Siobhan seriously. "They really mean it. Every meteorologist that has been consulted so far agrees. But they all say that there's something off about this storm, something that's not normal."

"A storm all over the world isn't normal," Kosma mumbled, a little frustrated with her dropping the plastic cup and hearing such shocking new. "Well, let's try to enjoy the party until ultimate doom falls upon us." She thought faintly of the Hadron Collider incident earlier that year. Siobhan sighed and opened the door for her on their way back into the house. "What time is it, anyway?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Siobhan asked.

"I don't have a watch," Kosma said simply. Siobhan squinted to read the VHS player from across the room. Kosma sighed; Siobhan had something against wearing her glasses when she didn't absolutely have to. There was always the option of LASEK surgery or contact lenses, but Siobhan wouldn't have any of it.

"It's... oh my God," she breathed, "11:45. I didn't even realize it got so late."

Kosma bit her lip. "Fucking A. Way past curfew." It looked like a lot of people would be getting rides home from their parents that night, or, even better, driving illegally. Then again, the police probably had other people on their mind if a huge storm was going to hit the world in fifteen minutes. "Siobhan, can I spend the night?" Kosma asked faintly.

Siobhan nodded her head. "I kind of expected it."

Kosma didn't even bother to fish her cell phone out of Siobhan's room; her mother was so used to the two of them spending time together that it really didn't mean anything if Kosma never came back from Siobhan's house. Well, maybe it meant a little. "I'm going to go outside, okay?" Kosma asked. She always liked the atmosphere outside before a storm. It was always so calm and the air always smelled so good.

Siobhan sighed as she watched Kosma throw on her dirty, black converse, tying the white and red laces haphazardly. "I'm not even going to count that as asking for permission because I know you're just going to go, anyway."

"Love you, too," Kosma said to her best friend and began weaving her way through the crowd, heading out the door. Whenever Kosma heard something she didn't want to, she had a tendency to assume that they were just saying "I Love You". It was an effective solution, but sometimes it went too far. Oftentimes Kosma would miss out on important information because, instead of her friends informing her, they said "I Love You".

Finally, she made it to the door to the backyard, and pushed it open.

* * *

The air did not smell right. It didn't have that amazing pre-rain smell, the smell that made Kosma want to lie on her back and stay there forever. It didn't even smell like static electricity like it did before a lightning storm. The atmosphere wasn't wet, and nothing felt right.

Kosma looked up at the sky and saw traces of small, dark clouds, which were blotting out any hint of stars in the sky. She stared up at the remaining stars for a moment, but soon had to rub her eyes to be sure of what she saw; did one of those stars just _blink out_? "No," she said to herself resolutely, "it's just the clouds." _It better be just the clouds._

There was something messed up about the clouds, as well. They weren't dark so much as they were purple, and they almost looked like they were swirling, as if made of poison gases. They looked vicious and deadly and ready to suck up everything in their paths. And Kosma wanted to get a better look at them.

As she walked farther away from the house and closer to the field that lay outside of Siobhan's fence, the booming music was fading. _Rammstein now_, Kosma thought faintly, yet another choice of her own. That didn't seem to matter as much as the clouds. It was almost as if they were shedding a purple light, making the gold of Kosma's own brown eyes stand out. They looked amber, like a cat's peering through the night.

And her curiosity could have killed her.

Kosma opened the gate and left it open, hoping that Siobhan's toy poodle, Mocha, wasn't outside on the lawn. "The hell?" she murmured to herself, walking further into the field. Away from the distractions of the party, the light coming from the sky looked more distinct, as did the color of the clouds and the sounds that the thunder was making. Lightning struck somewhere in the distance, but there was something wrong with it. It was too bright, too heavenly. Much too otherworldly to be in someplace like Nebula Heights.

And eternal darkness. Kosma saw impossible lights, bold color, all swirling around eternal darkness. While at first she thought that she was looking up to the staircase to heaven, it soon became obvious that she was staring into the descent of hell. Above her, the thunder boomed, a symphony of sound violating her eardrums like an unwanted guest. She was drowning into some mingling of light and darkness.

And she wanted _out_.

Before she could shout, the darkness all accumulated at her feet. She jumped out of the way. Kosma wanted to pass it all of as a trick of the light, herself seeing things, herself dreaming. But she wouldn't wake up. From the darkness, spots of yellow glowed that almost looked, humorously, like sprinkles on some odd black icing. The yellow spots grew darkness around them, however, as they ascended out of the pool of oil-like darkness.

They began to take form into bug-like creatures that Kosma was sure she had never seen in her life. While she expected to feel shivers and shudders down her spine, instead she was full of some sort of ecstasy. Her body went numb. Kosma was sure that she was saying something- anything- but she couldn't hear herself.

_There must be thousands of them by now,_ Kosma thought dully, not bothering to count every pair of glowing amber eyes that surrounded her. When she turned around, she could see that Siobhan's house was gone, her yard was gone, and slowly but surely, everything around her was disappearing. She turned back to the creatures. One of them was making an odd finger movement, as if it was beckoning her into the dark- and Kosma would have followed them. It would make sense, that feeling of numbness she got when they were close to her, pulling her in, sucking her dry, dry, dry of all worries and fears.

But then she realized that they were _lunging_ for her.

One by one, those creatures were jumping at Kosma, their little claws extended further than their antennae reached behind them, trying to destroy her, destroy her like whatever had gotten at Siobhan and the others destroyed her house. Like whatever had destroyed the town, which she realized was being gulped up all around her, save for the clean spot she was standing in the middle. The diameter was a good seventy meters at first, but it was dwindling. sixty-five, sixty, fifty-five... soon enough, she would be gulped up with the rest of them.

The rushing of the creatures changed instantly from an ecstasy to immense pain. Out of desperation or stubbornness for her life, Kosma through her arms in front of her in a cross, protecting her chest and her face. She feared for the worst and whispered an old, forgotten prayer beneath her breath, hoping it would save her.

No attacks came. No claws scratched up her body and no creatures knocked her to the ground. Instead, it seemed, some light was penetrating the thinness of her tightly squeezed eyelids, some light brighter than the purple that had been filling the sky- that is, before the darkness took over. And an odd weight had come into her hand, somehow foreign and familiar all at the same time, like a long lost friend that had grown up in her absence.

With much effort, from fear rather than fatigue, Kosma opened her eyes.

"Whoa."

In her right hand was a long object, shaped, she thought vaguely, like a key. The handle was strong and lilac-colored, the guard around it shimmering as if made of glitter. The guard made way to the long shaft of the key, which was also a shimmering lilac, making way to a darker purple, and soon to a dark blue. The glittering, at this point, looked more like stars. The top of the key was adorned with a small, crescent moon, and the teeth were yellow, extending into points.

_Lethal_ points.

The creatures surrounding her had backed away, shielding their nighttime eyes from the bright light that they key had brought with it. The weapon calmed down in a moment, however, the light around it disappearing. At that, the creatures once again gained their courage and rushed towards Kosma with more speed than other. "I'm dying," Kosma mumbled ironically, "and I pray to God for help, and he gives me a key." _If it was God that gave it to me at all, but that's not the point._

But it was a key with _sharp teeth_.

She wielded the weapon like as something just short of a master swordsman, pointing the tip of the key threateningly at the creatures. They flinched, but did not stop her attack. With clumsy swipes, she attacked the creatures, contented by their disappearing into nothing as she did so. _But they aren't disappearing into nothing_, Kosma thought bitterly. More and more continued to appear as she destroyed more of them. Still, the more she destroyed, the less world was being swallowed up, leaving her on her fifty-five-meter-diameter patch of land.

And these little pink shapes kept floating up in the sky with the more she destroyed! Was that what was making them multiply? Angrily, when she destroyed another of the creatures, she reached up for one of the pinkish objects and grabbed it.

The object was weightless, like thin glass (and equally as translucent) in her hand. She noticed ironically, that it was in the shape of a heart. What were things things that were flying out of the creatures when she destroyed them, and why were they so _beautiful_? How could something so magnificent come from something so horrible?

And then, Kosma let it go. Instead of floating up towards the corrupt sky above her, however, it stayed directly in front of Kosma and, to her surprise, flew at her. While Kosma tried to get away, the object was at much too close of a distance, and the creatures surrounding her were looking at her carefully, if with anything, awe. She could not escape.

The little heart went straight through her.

Kosma looked behind her to see where it had gone, but it was not there. She put the hand that wasn't desperately clutching her giant key to her heart.

Ba-Ba-dump-dump.

An irregular heartbeat.

No, _two_ heartbeats.

Kosma opened her mouth to scream, but before she knew it, all of the Heartless around her had disappeared. She was left with the large patch of land she had been fighting on, but she was all alone. "What's going on?" she murmured, praying for an answer, an answer that, surely, she would never get. Siobhan was gone, Yuki and Seth were gone, and even the creatures, bad company as they were, that were trying to attack her was gone.

A rumbling coursed through the earth, and Kosma let out an unintentional squeak. "A goddamn earthquake, too?!" she shouted bitterly, but was knocked to her feet by the vibrations. From an all new kind of darkness, blacker than ever before, a creature stood, at least fifty feet tall. Materializing slowly, Kosma soon recognized him simply as a larger version of the creatures that had been there before him, except he had distinguishable fingers, legs and knees, arms, tendrils for hair and a torso- a torso with a cutout of a heart.

"Did... did I take your heart?" she asked nervously, but the thing did not respond. _Of course you didn't take his heart_, she thought to herself numbly, _you took the heart out of some random little creature that was trying to make you dinner. Don't be worried. Fight._

Maybe hearing these words would have made her braver, but Kosma did not back down. She had already lost her friends, her home, and most likely her family, so all she had left was herself. "If I've gotta sacrifice that," she said, "then at least I'll be wherever my friends are." This time, she used no prayer, only her key. Kosma charged at the creature and struck the closest place she could, its knee. The creature stumbled, and cried out.

_He's actually hurt by this,_ Kosma thought, pushing a lock of chocolate hair out of her eyes.

_Of course he is_, came a voice in Kosma's head that she didn't recognize, _you struck him with your keyblade._

"What?" Kosma yelled into nothing, scared and wondering where that voice came from. She didn't want to fight anymore, not after hearing that voice. She wanted to wake up from whatever bizarre dream that the lemonade she drank the night before had given her, and she wanted to wake up _now._ The large creature struck down with his hand, and with a sidestep, Kosma was able to narrowly avoid him. "Who are you?" she asked nobody in particular, either the voice in her head or the creature.

_Never mind that,_ came the voice again. It was both reassuring in the sense that Kosma knew she couldn't be crazy if she heard the voice twice, and not reassuring because it could have just meant she was crazier than normal. The deep voice, however, was trying to calm her down, trying to get her to focus. She could feel it. _Just attack that heartless with your keyblade!_

A heartless. Was that what she was fighting? Without a second thought, she rushed up to the hand that had struck the ground next to Kosma and hacked at it with her weapon, _her keyblade_. The creature cried out in some indistinct moan and tried to lash at her, making two cuts through her red t-shirt, no doubt staining it even redder.

Kosma was faintly aware of some smaller heartless surrounding the hand in the blackness that it was creating, but she was too busy concentrating on destroying _this_ one. From its hand (after a good few more hits) she ran up to his head, hoping it was its weakest point. When she made it to the side of its head, she began to swipe away with her keyblade. She made no welts or cuts in it, but it seemed to be in some kind of pain. "If you had a heart," she shouted at the creature after looking at its cookie cut-out torso, "I'd fucking stab it. Where are my friends? My family? You're the leader, aren't you?"

_He can't understand you_, came that male voice in her head again, _he may be stronger than the others, but he's still just a heartless. He's not their leader, but you'd better get rid of him or else your whole world may be swallowed up._

"What does that mean?"

_If your entire world is swallowed up, it's impossible to get back. If you can leave a fragment of it- just a fragment- it will go to a place called End of the World, and you can restore it._

"How? How do I restore it?" she cried out, hacking only harder at the creature, which was groping blindly by its head, though its arms were too muscular to let its hands reach its head. "How do I restore it?" she repeated.

Two words resounded in her head. _Kingdom Hearts_.

The creature cried out, fell to the ground, and everything went black.

**Author's Note: Okay, it wasn't that amazing, but I've definitely gotten better since my first ever fanfiction. XD' I hope that we learn more about Kosma as time goes on. And don't worry, Sora, Kairi and Riku are coming into the picture; in fact, expect them in the next chapter. Until then, please review, and thank you for reading!**


	2. Lethal and Beautiful

**AuNo: Chapter two already! That means that I might very well keep up with this! XD So, now that you've been introduced to our main character, Kosma, in this chapter you'll get a nice little idea of the kind of person that this 'voice in her head' is, and where she's headed now. Maybe. Sort of. Oh well xD. Anyway, disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, I wouldn't go on- okay, never mind. I'd probably go on fanfiction even if I did own Kingdom Hearts.**

Chapter Two

Lethal and Beautiful

_Well it would've been, could've been__  
Worse than you would ever know.  
__Oh, the dashboard melted  
But we still have the radio._

Modest Mouse, "Dashboard"

* * *

The first sensation that Kosma became aware of was the smell of the air. Nothing smelled like Nebula Heights anymore; that mixture of oak trees, burnt leaves, car exhaust and freshly cut grass was long gone. It smelled more like a city, like one of the places she heard of on the radio that contributed to most of global warming. Not that Kosma cared much about that at all. She cared about knowing what was going on.

Next, Kosma became aware of hard ground underneath her fingertips. Something stick and warm was underneath her, like water spilled on the pavement on a hot day. It smelled coppery and thick, and mixed with the smell of her surroundings, made her want to throw up a little, but she managed to stay bile-free. The smell matched the irony taste in her mouth, which, upon swallowing, she noticed was blood.

Kosma groaned. _Looks like the vocal cords are still in order,_ she thought, commending herself.

_Of course they are. You're fine, just a little disoriented._

Kosma's eyes flew open. Where had that voice come from? It seemed only slightly familiar. She was aware of the voice's echo in her head, but refused to believe that the source of it wasn't standing around her. She had woken up in some sort of an alleyway, and surely enough, what she was lying in was a puddle of blood- her own blood, running from her back. But she could feel nothing; she was numb. She could not get herself to cry out for help, or just plain cry, both out of pride and sheer lack of energy.

Boxes were everywhere, neatly placed in front of landings to make ascending to another level in that alleyway easier, no doubt. Strange markings covered the ground, and the buildings were made out of brick and stone. Then why did it smell so much like a big city? Kosma managed to push herself off of the ground to get a better look at her surroundings, but she had seen the gist of it.

Then where did that _voice_ come from?

_You can stand around like an idiot all day,_ said the voice, _or you can get up so we can try to get some answers._

"Who are you? And where am I?" she asked, refusing to let her voice shake. No, Kosma was stronger than that; not many girls at the age of sixteen could say that they laughed at some of the most gruesome horror movies. Kosma was strong.

But this wasn't any horror movie. Kosma could tell. She could feel it on her fingertips, on her tongue, but especially on her back, where that giant bug- that giant Heartless, as that voice had called it before- had attacked her. Still, feigning strength in a time where it was necessary seemed like a more logical solution than breaking down.

_My name's Rex. Like the dinosaur. And I can't tell just by looking at an alley._

"Let me get this straight," Kosma began, trying not to fume, "Rex. You can speak to me in my mind and hear what I think, but you can't tell me where I am right now?" That didn't seem possible at all. Someone, somewhere, was playing a cruel joke on her. "Where are you, anyway? Behind here?" She walked carefully to the edge of the building that she had been lying against, but nothing lay around the corner. Peculiar.

_You won't find me back there. I don't know why, but I can see what you see and feel what you feel. Emotionally, not physically. And I can tell that right now, you're very scared. Seems you're pretty good at hiding these things when you speak._ She could swear that she heard a laugh in his voice. Kosma furrowed her brows. _If you see a street sign or something of the like, I might be able to tell you where we are. Try looking for one._ Kosma looked up from where she was standing, but shielded her eyes with her hands, only to find that there was no sun above her. Instead, only the night sky and a few stars were in the sky.

Blink. Blink.

It seemed, slowly, one by one, they were going out. "So earlier," she said, "I'm not crazy."

_Earlier?_ Rex asked, _That happened three days ago. You've been asleep, or unconscious or something. I don't know. I was trying to wake you up forever._

"So you're really in my mind?" Kosma asked, but she was thinking, _That's it, I've finally lost it. Next thing I know, I'll be chasing a rabbit down a hole and having tea with the mad hatter. A fitting situation._

_I don't exactly know,_ Rex admitted, _all I know is that I'm inside of you. The last thing I remember was a Heartless stealing my heart, and then, I sort of remember _being_ that Heartless, but it was almost like a dream. And then, I was destroyed, and I ended up here._

"A Heartless?" Kosma asked, blinking curiously as she stood dumbly in that alleyway, "You mean that _you_ were a Heartless? That creepy shadow-like bug thing that was attacking me? What are those, and why were they at my home? Where am I?"

_Slow down, kid_-

"Hey, who's there?"

It was all too much. For a moment, Kosma ignored the little voice in her head and flipped around to meet a figure that had approached her from the alley. Some brunet with a mullet had showed up dressed almost in all brown. His hands were on his hips, and two accusatory dark eyebrows were raised at Kosma.

"Sorry," Kosma mumbled, "I was just leaving."

"What's _that_?" he asked, pointing at the puddle of slowly drying liquid that, coincidentally, she had stepped in and had been making frantic footprints with during all of her pacing. "Is that _blood_? Are you hurt, miss?"

Kosma rolled her eyes, shook her head. "I was just leaving."

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" he asked her.

_Say no,_ Rex whispered into her mind, _he's not important. I doubt he knows anything about keyblades and Heartless. We need to get you somebody who does know, someone who might be able to figure out why I'm suddenly in your mind and body and why you have a keyblade._

"The keyblade..." she mumbled, "Rex, I lost the keyblade-"

"What?" the man asked worriedly.

"Um," Kosma was stammering now, overwhelmed by the voice in her mind conflicting with the voice from in front of her, "No, no thanks," she said, "I'll be fine. I just have to-"

_Ask him if he knows where Leon is._

"Leon?" Kosma asked. "Do you know where Leon is?" She kept her voice controlled now, just like a puppet doing as she was told. Whoever this Rex was, he obviously knew more about her situation than she did, and could help her more than some random person off of the street, whoever he was. He frowned at her.

"Leon, Leon..." Suddenly, the man snapped. "Yes, he came to visit Merlin today."

_I know where that is. Thank him and go._

"Thank you," Kosma said quickly, and sped past the man. On the way, she almost slipped on the blood that was still sticking to the bottom of her old Converse shoes. Those shoes could survive everything, from running around with her dog to playing soccer with Siobhan to getting knocked unconscious by some giant Heartless.

Rex gave her instructions in her mind, but Kosma could barely pay attention to them once she got out of the alleyway. The city was beautiful, lights flickering gently through every building in the place. She had been resting against some accessories shop, she noticed, but it wasn't as if it mattered; she didn't have any munny to her name. It was all back at home, back in her wallet, wherever home was. Little fluffy alien-looking things walked the town, but even if they were being malevolent, Kosma wouldn't have been afraid; they look like the kind of stuffed animals she expected to protect her from the monsters under the bed when she was five.

_West. No, your other west._

"For just some random voice inside my head," Kosma growled, "you're really getting on my nerves. Couldn't you just say left or right or something? I don't have a compass on me and I have no idea where west is. The sun's already set."

_The sun's always set on Traverse Town. Left._

"Is that where we are?"

_Yes. Now, you'll see a pair of double doors. Yes, those. When you go through them, some Heartless may attack you. They got rid of them for quite some time before, but since your world was swallowed up, there's obviously something going on. So-_

"Wait, slow down," Kosma said abruptly. She didn't quite care how many eyes were glued to her, as enough people were staring at her already; it wasn't exactly common to see a teenage girl walking around a town she has never been in, blood smeared all over her clothes and hair disheveled, talking to herself. "First of all, who's 'they'?"

_'They' are Sora, Donald and Goofy. A trio of heroes that helped save all of the worlds from darkness. Sora is the keyblade master. He has the same weapon as you, but a little different. Every keyblade wielder's keyblade is different, unless you put a keychain on it._

"So there are multiple worlds, mine has been swallowed up by something, and I'm a keyblade wielder. Any more fun facts for the day?" Kosma laughed irritably and must have looked like some woman on crack. "Oh, I've got one! I fucking lost my keyblade when I was knocked unconscious by my new best friend."

"Are you alright, sweetie?" a mother called from behind her in at the benches. Kosma ignored her and waited for Rex's response.

_You didn't lose your keyblade, and your home isn't gone for good. It's at a resting place, in End of the World. It seems like worlds are being unlocked and destroyed, paths between worlds being broken. Most likely, the path to End of the World has been broken, too. That's what happened to Sora, Donald and Goofy._

"So what did they do to get to End of the World?"

_They locked up all of the worlds that were unlocked so the Heartless couldn't enter again. When they made it to End of the World, they sealed the Door to Darkness, and that restored all of the broken worlds. But we might not be dealing with a Heartless here. We might be dealing with a Nobody._

"What's a Nobody?" Kosma was holding the side of her head, trying to process this information all at once. Surely, she was only looking ten times more insane as she continued to speak to herself in front of the entrance to a second part of Traverse Town, but Kosma couldn't care less what people who knew nothing about her thought of her. She wanted to know what was going on, and she wanted to get her world back, and that was it.

_Well, first of all, a Heartless is what happens to the darkness in a person's heart when they're heart is stolen. A Nobody is what happens to the body. They become a different person, depending on how strong their heart was when it was stolen. Some people don't even have Nobodies._

"When you say that their heart was stolen-"

_It doesn't mean death. Death is completely different, irreversible. But Sora and his friends have proved that, sometimes, losing ones heart _is_ reversible. That's probably what happened to me. My heart was stolen, but here I am, speaking to you and seeing everything you see._

"Which isn't weird at all," Kosma said faintly, "let's just get out of here. How do I get my keyblade back?"

_Hold out your hand and call for it with your mind._

Kosma rolled her eyes, but held out her right hand and willed the keyblade to appear. She was shocked out of her mind when a weight appeared in her hand, somehow as heavy as bricks and light as a feather in the same time. Under the city lights, the sparkles on the keyblade crackled like fire, lethal and beautiful. Letting out a breath she barely noticed she was holding, she took one swipe in the empty air, and processed the gasps that she heard behind her.

"Mommy, the crazy lady has a giant key!"

"Shut up, kid or I'll show you crazy," Kosma snapped. The little boy that she had yelled at was frowning, and soon his face crinkled up into a big bawling mess. Not having time to deal with that kind of a distraction, she pushed the doors to the next area open.

_This is Second District. We won't be in here long enough for you to have to fight any Heartless. Just... run._

"What?"

_I said, run!_

As if on cue, darkness pooled beneath them, and beady, yellow eyes blinked out from the black. In moments, tat least ten of those Heartless had formed and were swarming around Kosma. She backed up for a moment.

_They're just shadows. You can outrun them. **Run**!_

So Kosma ran. She took off like a bullet, following Rex's instructions like a machine. Left, left, down the alley, through the second pair of double doors. She found herself in the Third District, which didn't look all that different from the second one except that she was able to pick out a pretty fountain (that might have been much more beautiful if it were actually running) and a large bell that reminded Kosma of the ones they used to ring at church.

New Heartless were chasing after her now, ones that didn't look a thing like the bug-like creatures she had fought before. These had armor encasing their bodies, and they twitched around like madness in a living form, lunging at her. But Kosma, bless her long legs, was too fast for them. Soon enough, she neared a door with an odd flame-like symbol on it.

_Don't worry about the symbol, Sora already unlocked it. Just run through._

"Are there Heartless in there, too?"

_No. You'll be safe there._

No Heartless? That sounded like a good plan. Like hell, she ran to the door and pushed it open, slamming it closed behind her. The scenery before her took her breath away.

A pond, a very still one, was the first thing she saw. In fact, it was eerily still, stiller than death. Moving platforms floated from side to side in the water, all making their way towards a small island in the center of the pond, where a patched-up tent lay. "Who lives there?"

_Merlin,_ Rex answered her. His voice was slightly louder now, either that, or it was easier to hear now that they were in perfect silence. _He's a very powerful wizard, and was once part of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. But ever since the committee, well, restored Hollow Bastion, he returned to his secluded little hut to live. If trouble really is happening, that's probably why Leon is here. I'll bet you anything that they need Merlin to help restore Hollow Bastion again._

Something sunk in Kosma's stomach. "Who destroyed it?"

_The Heartless, most likely,_ Rex answered, _or the Nobodies, or a combination of the two. It really depends on who wanted to do the destroying. You have to hop across those platforms, get to the house and talk to Leon. He'll be able to tell you everything._

Kosma laughed at him. "You're funny, Rex. Me. Moving platforms. Brilliant idea. Let's just get me to balance on a high wire while juggling torches. Completely safe, no doubt." And, of course, on her first jump, she missed the platform by a mile and landed in the water.

* * *

Meanwhile, a boy stepped out of a Gummi Ship in a world almost painfully familiar to him. How many times he had landed there with his two companions, Donald and Goofy, just months before. The marketplace was quiet, as usual, one of the first places of Hollow Bastion to be completely rid of Heartless. The boy wondered if this had anything to do with the letter that King Mickey had sent him when he and his friends returned home after their last journey.

It warned them of a new keyblade wielder, one that had been hiding in the shadows. Maleficent's secret weapon. The King did not know much about this boy, except that he had his heart stolen, he was a Nobody, and he was working with Maleficent for something. That spelled danger no matter what.

He should have known better than to leave Maleficent and Pete at the castle.

"Sora," the boy's friend called from the Gummi Ship. He hopped out, brushing his hands off. They had to destroy so many Heartless ships on the way there, it was no wonder that his friend Riku looked so disheveled. He ran a hand angrily from his scalp to the ends of his silver hair and gave Sora a look. "You never told us why we had to suddenly come down here."

Sora blinked. "I didn't?"

"No, you didn't," came a female voice, and his redhead friend stumbled from the ship. "And you know how much I hate Gummi Ships, so this better be good, Sora." Her lilac purple eyes were evaluating him silently, pushing him to go on with his explanation. Sora knew that look from Kairi all too well.

Sora sighed. "I thought I told you. I got an urgent call from Yuffie and Cloud. They said that they're restarting the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, and they want to give us some information about why."

"So King Mickey was right?" Kairi asked, her eyes, which were originally in accusatory slants, had widened to look like a deer in the headlights. "Already? Maleficent's already trying to gain power? But... we _just_ defeated Xemnas."

"Not just Maleficent, whoever that 'keyblade wielder from the shadows' is. And something tells me this is going to be big." And then, the pair of lilac eyes narrowed at him, followed closely after by seafoam green ones. "I'm sorry, I thought I told you! Punishment later, Yuffie and Cloud now. God, I hope Merlin isn't there."

He walked ahead of the two in silence. The way to Merlin's house in Hollow Bastion (considerably different than his house in Traverse Town) had become so ritual that he had forgotten his feet were moving by the time he made it there. Heartless did appear, but they didn't bother to call upon their keyblades, Kingdom Key, Way to Dawn and Destiny's Light, as the defense system did a pretty good job of taking care of them. **(AuNo: I don't know Kairi's keyblade's name, nobody else does either, so I'm making it up. Dx)**

Sora didn't even bother to knock (which earned him a worried look from Kairi). He simply walked into the house, and before he could even register what that rapidly moving black blur was, he was tackled by Yuffie, pulling him into her crazy embrace. They let go fast, however, and Yuffie was simply beaming. "Sora! I'm so glad you can make it. And you brought Kairi and Riku. Good. We'll probably need them."

"What about Donald and Goofy?" came a voice. A tall, blond man wearing equally dark clothes walked in the room. Cloud had never really been a member of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, but he was always working for them- no, Cloud didn't work for anybody, he was working _with_ them- and had pretty much been honorary.

"They're still at Disney Castle," Sora shook his head, "we didn't have time to go and get them. You guys sounded like you needed us urgently on the phone." And thank God that Sora had started using a cell phone. He was lucky that he was able to get communication between Destiny Islands and Radiant Garden- obviously fallen back into the chaotic state of Hollow Bastion again, but that was another story- except the long distance charges were ridiculous.

"And it's a good thing that you didn't," Yuffie said, frowning, "because, you're right. We have a lot to tell you, and no time to waste. Leon's off getting Merlin so we can restart the Committee. But we can start without him."

* * *

By the time they had made it to the little island, just outside of the tent-like house, Kosma was wringing lake water out of her hair. For the fourth time. It was a good thing that she had let her keyblade disappear, because she would have never been able to swim out of that godforsaken pond while clutching it with her dominant hand. "Great, now I'm going to have to shower and walk around with my hair wavy..."

_You straighten your hair, don't you? Don't worry about it, kid, I'll show you plenty of spells to fix silly things like that._

"Spells?" Kosma asked, "And will you stop calling me 'kid'? My name is Kosma." She let her keyblade reappear in her right hand just in case.

"Kosma, is it?"

"Yes, Ko-" but Kosma stopped dead. That voice was most definitely not in her head. She flipped to her left to see a man that looked to be in his late teens, with dark brown hair, swept oddly on top of his face. He was dressed head to toe in what looked like some vampire hunter gear you would see in cheesy old horror movies, but most importantly, he had one long scar running in between his eyes. Next to him was an old man that certainly fit the description of 'wizard', with a ridiculous hat and garments and a beard that practically touched the floor. That had to have been Merlin, which meant that the brunet was Leon.

"And you're the Nobody that's been starting this whole mess. Don't give me that look, I see your keyblade. You're the one that's been destroying the worlds." Leon, without waiting for an answer from Kosma, pulled out a long weapon that looked like a cross between a blade and a gun. Maybe it was both. A bladegun?

"Wait! I'm not a Nobody-"

"That's what they all say," Leon shouted and ran toward her with his weapon. Kosma, instinctively, blocked his blade with her own keyblade, and jumped to the side.

_Kosma. Okay. Fight him, but don't kill him. You have to find a way to show him that you're not a Nobody. Obviously, the bad guy that we're looking for right now is a Nobody. Think, what do people have that Nobodies don't?_

Kosma needed only to block a couple more strikes before yelling, "What?"

"What?" Leon asked bitterly, and swiped at her one more time with that godforsaken weapon. This time, he actually left a pretty deep welt in her left arm, causing her to cry out in pain; Kosma would never get used to being able to hear a voice that nobody else could hear.

_A heart_, Rex answered her hastily, _you have to show him that you have a heart._

"How do I do that?" she asked.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Leon said, shaking his head and looking at her like she was crazy. He actually managed to stop attacking her for about a minute, standing still in front of her, because she was freaking him out so much. It had to be good for something.

_You should really start thinking your answers to me, Kosma, you know I can hear your thoughts. And what you're thinking about Leon right now? Not very nice. Anyway, I don't know. What are you going to do, just take his hand and put it to your he-_

Before Rex could finish, Kosma deemed that a perfectly natural solution. She made her keyblade disappear so she wouldn't seem like she was attacking him (only to further Leon's confusion), and grabbed his left wrist. It was strong and sturdy, she realized, as she pressed his hand to where her heart would be, just under her left shoulder bone. She could feel her heartbeat- no, two heartbeats- through Leon's hand.

_Ba-ba dump-dump_.

Leon, as if he had just been slapped silly, jumped back. "You're not a Nobody," he said.

"And you're just figuring this out, Einstein," Kosma murmured, shoving her hands into her jeans pocket. Boy, had she had enough for the past few days, even if most of them she spent unconscious with Rex yelling at her.

"And you have a keyblade."

Kosma nodded. "And there's a lot you need to tell me."

"Actually, after feeling that heartbeat, I think there's a lot _you_ need to tell _me_."

**AuNo: Actually, I was pretty satisfied with this chapter! I got to get a nice little Sora scene in there to introduce them before they meet Kosma, and I got Kosma to get in on a little action. All that bothered me was that she didn't destroy one measly Heartless in this chapter... ah, I'll get over it. XD Anyway, please review!**


	3. The Apprentice

**Author's Note: I'm warning you, this chapter might get pretty boring. No fighting, just a lot of information. I guarantee action in the next one. And to answer Rai-neko-dono's question, the 'x' in Rex's name doesn't mean anything, but his name is very, very important, and we'll find out why later. :D As long as I'm on the subject of reviewers, thank you all of my reviewers so far! I'm happy to be writing this because of you guys. Oh, P.S., I really recommend listening to the songs that are at the beginning of the chapter while you read. They inspire the chapter, and the lyrics I choose always have something to do with the main idea of the chapter.  
**

Chapter Three:

The Apprentice

_The rear view mirror shows the towns we're abandoning.  
Let's leave this life behind, forgetting all they say.  
The time we had is time well borrowed.  
Stay out all night; forget tomorrow.  
Let's you and me, make a night of it.  
Old enough to know, but too young to care._

Anberlin, "Haight Street"

* * *

"Where are you from, Kosma?" Leon asked as he and Merlin led her out of Merlin's little lot through the sewers, of all places. It was difficult to talk and hold her breath all at the same time, but somehow, Kosma managed.

"Nebula Heights," she choked out, and at last, they waded through the last of the shallow, dirty water. Her shoes were soaked despite the rest of her already drying from her multiple falls into the water in front of Merlin's house, and her feet were hurting. It wasn't until her teeth began hurting that she realized that they had been chattering. "Where are you taking me, anyway?" she asked, stopping with her hands on her hips.

"I'm not _taking_ you anywhere," Leon argued, though his voice managed to stay relatively monotone, "I'm leading you to Hollow Bastion. The rest of the Restoration Committee is in there, and Yuffie just called Sora, Riku and Kairi in. They'll know what to do with you."

Kosma's eyes widened. "Sora?"

_The same one,_ Rex told her, who had been keeping relatively silent when Kosma was following the two of them, _the keyblade master._

Leon looked as surprised as Kosma felt. "You know him, Kosma?" Leon asked her with a little too much curiosity laced into his voice.

Kosma shook her head. "No, I-"

_Don't tell him!_ Rex boomed in her mind. _Wait until we get to the committee._

"It's nothing," Kosma finished. Leon, obviously having enough of her psychopathic tendencies for one day, rolled his eyes and continued forward. Merlin stayed quiet, his eyes sometimes wandering back and forth nervously. Kosma wondered for a moment if maybe he _couldn't_ speak, if he was mute for some reason or another.

_He can talk,_ Rex said, reminding Kosma that her mind was no longer her own, _he's probably just nervous, seeing as the worlds are disappearing once again. It's not exactly the easiest thing ever to deal with._

_So I've noticed,_ Kosma thought bitterly, _but you seem to know a lot about these people for just some random heart that got absorbed into my body. How come?_

_Heads up. Gummi Ship._

"What- ow!" Kosma growled as her head came in contact with something hard, large and cool, something metal. She stumbled backwards a few feet to get a better look at the monster that she had bumped into. A large, red machine that could very well have been a space ship lay before her. She could easily make out the cockpit and the small area on the inside where others would sit. "What is this?" she asked.

The machine was already opening on the side, revealing a couple of little steps to walk into. "This is a Gummi Ship," Leon said, "used for intergalactic travel. This one's just basic, but they get much better." He then waved it off dismissively. "If you want to know more about them, you'd have to ask Cid. He's in the Committee, too. He's an expert."

Kosma nodded, but she had no intention to sit down and talk gummy bears with some vehicle nerd. She wanted to know what was going on with her, why she suddenly had Rex's heart, why she had the keyblade and why there was some Nobody out there destroying all of the worlds. But mostly, she just wanted to sleep.

And sleep, she did. Immediately upon entering the Gummi Ship and finding the cheap, plastic-coated seats that attached themselves to the edge of the walls (facing another set, most likely for conversation or meetings in the ship), she sprawled herself out on them and fell straight asleep. Kosma didn't even feel the Gummi Ship taking off.

* * *

"Do you know the name of who's up to this?" Sora asked eagerly. This was an interesting case, one that seemed to creep in on them out of nowhere, and even cool, calm and collected Riku was on the edge of his seat for the information (though he hid that relatively well). Kairi was playing with her fingernails, which was probably only making Yuffie more nervous. She had sat them down on the couches in the main room of the house on purpose. It didn't seem to be working.

Cloud, however, refused to sit down, as usual. He rested his back against the wall, looking at his feet. "We don't know his name. But we do know that it's a he, and we do know that it's got to be a Nobody. The same Nobody that King Mickey wrote you about."

"How do you figure?" Riku asked, raising one silver eyebrow at the man.

"Simple," Cloud answered, "Radiant Garden had been under attack. Obviously, looking at the state of the city, it was recent. It's why we came back here. Yuffie, Tifa, Aerith, Leon and myself scoured the city for any clue of who could be behind it, and we found this."

Cloud reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a torn piece of cloth, an icy blue from the look of it. At first, Sora could not tell what was so important about it, but upon receiving it, he noticed the Nobody symbol on it. "Well, that would just figure," he said, "and it has to be a Nobody, because only Nobodies can control other Nobodies."

"Exactly," Yuffie nodded. "Unless Organization XIII found their way back to the realm of light, it looks like we're dealing with a Nobody. And we called you over because we think that it's the Nobody that King Mickey wrote you about. Do you have the letter?"

Of course Sora had the letter. He kept it with him constantly, reading it and re-reading it, trying to find the slightest clue as to who this new evil could be. Mickey had been so vague, and his handwriting was that of someone in a huge rush.

_Sora,_

_Sorry I'm writin' this in such a rush, but Maleficent's at it again. I haven't seen any big action anywhere, but there's been a lot of dark activity over at the Castle that Never Was. I don't think you have to worry about it right now, but she's got a new apprentice. I haven't gotten a lotta information about him, fellas, but I know he's a Nobody, I know he has the keyblade, and Maleficent ordered the Heartless to make him that way, but that was some time ago. Apparently, they've known each other for a long time. I have to go, but keep safe, and if ya need me, I'll always be at Disney Castle!_

_-King Mickey._

_P.S. Pete's in on it, too, but that shouldn't be a problem for you fellas._

Yuffie skimmed over it once or twice, but when Cloud was handed the note, he read it thoroughly the first time through, and then shook his head. "The only Nobody that could be unlocking and destroying worlds," Cloud said, "is Maleficent."

"But why?" Kairi asked, her red eyebrows furrowed in frustration.

"Why else?" Riku asked. His voice was noticeably more on edge than it usually was, probably from nerves. He remembered very clearly what it was like to work with Maleficent; it wasn't the most pleasant job. "Maleficent is power hungry. No number of times being destroyed will make her anything else. She wants power, and if this is a Nobody that's working with her, he probably wants a heart. Especially after Maleficent took his."

"It helps to know the enemy," said Sora, his cornflower blue eyes determined and narrowed, "so I say we should go to Disney Castle as soon as possible and talk to King Mickey. Maybe even now. If we know his name and his weaknesses, his special powers, maybe we'll be able to beat him easier. Maybe King Mickey's learned more by now."

Kairi nodded. "And Maleficent has to be over at The World that Never Was, in her new castle." Kairi didn't mention how ironic she thought it was that the Nobodies she wanted Sora to destroy owned that castle before her, and now she was working with a Nobody apprentice. "What are the roads like?" she asked now, "Is there still enough light to make it there?"

Cloud shook his head. "Cid just checked yesterday. So many worlds are locked up that darkness is everywhere. No doubt Maleficent's doing." At Sora, Riku and Kairi's distressed faces, he added, "Well, what else would Maleficent do? Leave her hiding place out in the open? She knows that you know that she was going to stay at that castle, and she'd protect it with all that she's got: darkness. Sorry to break it to you."

"What my pessimistic friend is trying to say," Yuffie cut in, "is that, yes, it's blocked by darkness, but with enough worlds sealed from the darkness, no more can get through, and you'll be able to make it through. You probably don't have to worry as much about that as you do about the Nobody, so why don't you get a move on?"

Riku nodded his head. "Sounds like a plan."

Sora was the first to stand up, followed by Riku and Kairi at his rear. "Alright. Let's get to Disney Castle."

"Not so fast."

That voice was all too familiar, as familiar to Sora as Yuffie and Cloud's. Leon. He didn't even need to look at the door to know it was him, but it was a good thing he did. Leon was carrying a limp girl in his arms. A curtain of wavy, slightly damp brown hair was falling over her peacefully closed eyes. She was dressed in normal teenage clothing- a pair of jeans, a black t-shirt and gloves, and vintage black shoes. She could have very well come from Hollow Bastion, but she had an air about her that said she had come from a different world.

"Leon!" Sora was the first to shout.

"Met this thing at Merlin's house," Leon said, jerking his head in Merlin's direction. He walked into the house with a pleased wonder plastered to his face; it had changed much since he left. Rooms had been added in the back for Committee members and more if they needed to spend the night, the front room had been cleaned up, and a stairway to the roof had been added. "She was talking to herself, soaking wet and carrying a keyblade."

"No way," Kairi breathed, her eyes widening. Sora and Riku exchanged equally as surprised reactions with each other, but Yuffie just pursed her lips. Cloud didn't seem remotely interested. "Is she okay?"

"Hm?" Leon raised an eyebrow, and looked back down at the girl. "Oh. Right. She's fine, she just fell asleep on the Gummi Ship ride. Of course, that came after her walking right into the damn thing. She'll probably get a pretty good bump for that." He shook his head. "I don't know how to explain it. She was talking to herself, making the oddest facial expressions. She didn't seem with us at all, even after we tried to help her."

"I thought she was insane," Merlin smiled. Everyone ignored him, as usual.

"She's not a Nobody, is she?" Kairi asked, afraid that maybe King Mickey had gotten the gender wrong. After all, King Mickey had mentioned that Maleficent's new apprentice was a keyblade wielder, and it wouldn't be the first time that they searched worlds for something that was with them all along. This girl could very well be the apprentice.

Leon shook his head. "No. She put my hand to her heart." For a moment, Leon became silent, his head bowed to look at the girl. He took slow steps over to the couches and set the sleeping figure down on them, gentler than Sora could ever imagine him to be. "She has spunk, this kid. Just grabbed my hand and made me feel her heartbeat. Or... heartbeats."

"What?" Sora asked dumbly.

"She has two heartbeats. Either that or a very irregular one, in which case she should have died by now, because I'm pretty sure that's a sign of a chronic illness. Feel for yourself," he suggested, waving to Sora. And Sora did; he took his hand and placed it just below her left clavicle, and almost jumped back in response, a reaction similar to the one that Leon had.

"What could that be from?" Sora asked.

"I was going to ask her when she woke up," Leon said.

"Sleeping Beauty time?" Riku asked, standing up. Angrily, Kairi pulled him back down to the couch that they were sitting on, the one opposite of the sleeping girl. Riku smiled sheepishly, and Kairi rolled her eyes; how could he go from being grave and serious to acting like a carbon copy of Sora? Sometimes that boy had major problems.

"Kosma," Leon said loudly, shaking her shoulder lightly. Sora went to take a seat back with Riku and Kairi. So much for leaving for Disney Castle immediately, but then again, King Mickey did say that he would always be there, and this information was probably very important for everyone to hear. Which reminded Sora.

"Where's the rest of the Committee?"

"Aerith went out investigating more. So did Tifa. Don't worry about them, we'll fill them in later," Cloud said, but Sora could tell that Cloud would just be uncomfortable with the two of them in the same room as him. He was probably feeling as uncomfortable as ever with those two being alone on a mission together.

The girl's eyes, Kosma's eyes, flickered open slowly, and Sora could see that they were a warm brown with golden strands in them that, under that light, made it look like fire was dancing behind her eyes. "What? What is it?" the girl asked, confused upon the sight of Sora, Riku and Kairi. She turned around and saw Leon, and maybe looked a little calmer. Maybe. "That's... Sora, Riku and Kairi?" she asked.

"Oh, did I mention?" Leon asked, "She knows these things without anybody telling her."

"What are you talking about?" Kosma asked him, bitterness laced in her voice.

"I told them how you're constantly talking to yourself, making faces, falling into water and knowing things without ever learning about them before. How could you know barely anything about a keyblade, but you could know who Merlin, myself, and Sora and his friends are?"

"Well, first of all, someone _is_ telling me," the girl said stubbornly, and turned around. She was silent for a moment. "Okay. But I don't think anybody else is coming."

Sora looked at Kairi and Riku worriedly for a moment. What was she talking about? When Kosma's voice interrupted his confusing thoughts, it finally gave them a few answers. "When my world was being destroyed... by those things... those Heartless, I got a keyblade. I started to get rid of the Heartless, but they were multiplying. I thought it was those little pink things that were flying out of them when I destroyed them, so I caught one.

"When I realized it was just a heart, I tried to let it go, but instead, it absorbed into me. And ever since then, I've been hearing this boy- his name is Rex- in my head. He's the one that knows about you guys, keyblades and Heartless and Nobodies. He told me everything I know, even if it's not a lot." She was silent for another moment. Sora thought, at first, it was her allowing them to take everything in, but then realized that it must be this Rex that she was talking about. "He says that he knew some keyblade wielders before his heart was taken."

"And you just..." Riku narrowed his seafoam eyes, "_absorbed_ the heart? Is that even possible?" He looked at Leon for some support, who only looked as stunned as the rest of them.

"It's not possible," he said, "hearts only belong to one body, one soul."

"Well, it did," Kosma snapped, her fingers coiling into fists.

"Actually, it is," Sora said, "Kairi's heart was in me. But I never heard her voice in my head or anything. I think that's something unique to Kosma."

Kosma nodded. "This is weird. All of it. And Rex can see what I can see. And hear what I'm thinking. And even feel a little bit of what I am. Emotionally, I mean. And he's helped me survive up to this point. If it wasn't for him, I probably would have been destroyed by the Heartless. So if you'll excuse me, you guys obviously aren't any help, and I need to find a way to get Rex's heart free, and get him to his body, wherever it is."

"It would be a Nobody by now, if he produced one," Riku said, "and that's a big _if_."

"Kosma, is it?" Kairi asked politely. Kosma nodded her head a couple of times. Kairi let out a breath, and continued. "If you're that adamant about finding Rex's Nobody, or maybe finding a way to restore his heart to a body, some way, then the best one would be to come with us on our journey to see if we can find him on the way."

"Wait, _her_ come with _us_?" Riku asked. "No offense, Kosma, but-"

"Why do people say that?" Kosma said, and everyone was suddenly silent, staring at her. She had a way of making things awkward, Sora realized, but at least she was dead honest, and that was a semi-admirable quality. "Why do people say 'no offense' before they're about to say something offensive? Why not just say 'offense completely intended', because that's exactly what you mean." She crossed her arms over her chest angrily.

Riku let out a sigh. "Fine. All offense intended, but you _just_ got your keyblade, right? Then you don't know shit about what we have to do, and you'll probably just weigh us down."

"That's not true," said Leon now, and everyone looked at him. "She says she has Rex. If he's really helped her through everything, if he's really as amazing as she says he is, than she should be able to get through anything with this Rex."

"Rex is all I need," Kosma said stubbornly.

"Then I say you guys let her go with you. If Rex is all she needs, then she should be up to your speed in no time." His voice seemed to be more amused and accusatory than it did to be genuine. "What does Rex know about Maleficent's new apprentice?"

Kosma was silent for a moment before answering, "he says it could be anybody. He knew a bunch of keyblade wielders, and it could be either one of them or none of them."

"At least he's not a know-it-all," Riku said, but Sora couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

"Take Kosma with," Leon said, "so we can find out why she can hear his boy's voice in her head and why he can see what she does and hear her thoughts. This might be important. It might mean he's strong. And if we can get him a body or over to his Nobody, if he's got one, he'll be strong and maybe he'll be able to help you beat Maleficent and her apprentice."

"How do I know which Nobody is his?" Kosma asked.

"Your heart should just react with it," Sora said, "you'll just know."

Kairi nodded. "When I found my Nobody, I just knew there was something different about her, that we were connected in some way. And I think Sora felt the same."

Sora blushed. He didn't, really; the first thing he did was try to kill Roxas, but that was a different story. He stood up eagerly. "Okay, Kosma, it looks like you- you and Rex- are with us. Now let's go to Disney Castle before King Mickey dies of old age."

**Author's Note: Like I said, pretty boring, but at least we've got some background now, and Kosma's in the group! Pay attention to some of the last things that Kosma said, though, because they'll be important in the next chapter. Thank you for reading, and please review!**


End file.
